Bruce nodded his assent and they swam across the square to an out-of-the-way alcove while the rest of the mer swarmed around Daneh and Rachel, and Jason spread out the net on the bottom.
“What is up by the lighthouse?” Edmund asked.
“Nothing,” Bruce answered hotly. “Why are you asking?”
“Because while you’ve been sweetness and light about everything else, that really cut to the bone and I’m wondering why.” He held up his hand to forestall a reply and shook his head. “Look, you probably are the kind of person who hates diplomats and diplomacy. If you even remember what they are…”
“I do,” Bruce said, tightly. “I’ve studied history. That’s why I’m trying to keep us out of this war.”
“Fine,” Edmund replied. “But the point is, the reason that they wore poker faces all the time was that they had things they didn’t want to give away. Now, you’ve got something, something important, up near the lighthouse. I’m not going to investigate what that is. I’m hoping I don’t even stumble across it. But the New Destiny folks, if they find out, will pry until they know what it is. And if they can, they’ll use it against you.”
“But you wouldn’t?” Bruce asked. “The Freedom Coalition hasn’t done anything to be ashamed of in this war?”
“No, we probably have,” Edmund admitted. “But there’s a world of difference between what we’re doing and what New Destiny is doing. There’s a huge difference between accidental deaths in combat, or a few soldiers out of hand and dealt with swiftly and surely, versus intentional atrocities and Changed orcs that are nothing but ‘out of hand.’ There’s a difference between accident and intent. And the point I’m trying to make is don’t make the same mistake you just made with me around them. Or whatever it is you’re trying to hide, they’ll hang around your neck like a dead albatross.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Bruce said. “But you keep this in mind. We’re not taking the mer off to war. We have important work to do here. And we’re going to continue it.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Edmund said. “I have that. Chapter and verse.”
Edmund had gotten into a discussion with one of the tool makers while Daneh had been dragged off to see one of the mer’s casualties. This left Rachel to be dragged off by Jason.
They went down one of the narrow crevices to where it turned into a tunnel. About a dozen feet in there was a brief break in the overhead and in the sunlight was a young mer-maid plaiting a twisted cord.
“Antja, this is Rachel Ghorbani,” Jason said.
The mer-maid dropped the material and drifted towards the entrance, smiling.
“Welcome,” she said. “There’s not much to offer, but if you’d care for some sea plum?”
“I don’t know,” Rachel said. “I’ve never had sea plum before.” Her stomach rumbled and she realized that it had been quite a few hours since she had eaten.
Antja went to one of the crevices along the wall and pulled down some plum-sized fruits with a suspiciously familiar appearance. Rachel took one and then paused as she realized she was wearing a full-head covering. She frowned, then pulled the mask out allowing the water to strike her face for the first time. She took a bite of the fruit and recognized the taste. She carefully put the mask back on, sealing it down, and took a breath, relieved that it hadn’t taken any hurt from its submersion.
“I’d never heard it called sea plum,” Rachel said. “But I recognize it; it’s kudzi.”
“What’s kudzi?” Antja asked.
“There was once a noxious vine called kudzu that covered all sorts of areas in Norau,” Rachel said. “A long, long time ago, someone released a retrovirus on it and forced it to produce fruits. The fruit is a cross between kiwi fruit and strawberry with a plum skin. Tasty, but it gets tiring. Where do you find it?”
“Anywhere that there’s a fresh-water outlet,” Jason answered. “Like the spring on the island. In the brackish area around it, there’s lots of sea plum. It’s got some good points, fish like to nest in it and it doesn’t really push anything out of the niche. And it produces sea plum. But, yes, it does get tiresome.”
“Unfortunately that’s about all that we have right now,” Antja said. “Unless…?”
“We didn’t get much,” Jason admitted, sadly.
“Well, maybe Herzer and his group will bring something back?” Rachel asked.
“Who’s Herzer?” Antja said.
After about an hour of fishing the dragons came up out of the water, the wyverns shivering with cold but burbling happily to each other. Two of them were carrying large fish in their mouths and they carried them to shore and dropped them, still flopping, at the feet of the riders. After that they all gathered around the fire, their wings spread, and soaked up the heat happily as their riders dabbed at under-spots.
Pete, once given a decent knife to work with, turned out to be one damned fine filleter and in minutes the fish were trussed up and sizzling over the fire.
“What I couldn’t do with a little orange sauce,” Pete complained as the fish were served on broad leaves. He had dragged himself up on the shore to direct the cooking and shook his head at the fumble-fingered grilling of the riders. When the fish was done he took a bite of one and then shrugged. “I guess it’s better than what we’ve been eating; sea plum and sushi without wasabi.”
“What’s sea plum?” Herzer asked around a mouthful of steaming hogfish.
“You’ll find out,” Pete said darkly. “It’s fine at first, but after a while it really starts to pall.”
The grilled fish, two grouper and a hogfish, were excellent, despite the chef’s complaints. The smoky fire added just a hint of seasoning to succulent flesh that was perfectly formed and solid, so solid that it had held up to being grilled with nothing but some sticks shoved through it.
“This is good,” Joanna said. “I mean, it’s sort of a snack to me, but it’s a hell of a lot better than raw, let me tell you. And nice to not be crunching bones.”
“I see you decided to start without me,” Bast called from the darkness. She strode into the firelight, still stark naked, bearing two huge tuna and with a string of at least two dozen lobster tails around her neck.
“How in the hell…?” Pete asked.
“I heard something about the town not having enough to eat,” Bast said simply. “We can carry these back.”
“Not why,” Pete said. “How?”
“Oh, that,” Bast said with a shrug. In the firelight, with her hair flat against her head and none of her panoply she looked like nothing so much as a young, very young, teenage girl. The tuna that she held, effortlessly, must have weighed nearly as much as she did. “Do you know how to catch a unique rabbit?”
“No?” Pete said.
“You nique up on him,” Bast said. “That fish smells good,” she added, dropping the tuna and lobster to the ground.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
By the time they were done, with the last scraps given to the wyverns, the sun was just about down and Herzer was not looking forward to the ride back.
“I thought a Blood Lord was always prepared,” Vickie said, maliciously.
“Pain is weakness leaving the body,” Herzer said. “I can take a little cold.”
“You’d damned well better not get hypothermic,” Pete said. “There’s a reason that we stay down where the water is relatively warm. And we still need a lot of fats.” He frowned at that and shrugged. “Those tuna would have been good.” The now gutted fish, and the lobster, had been loaded on Joanna for transportation to the mer-town.